Thanks again to everyone supporting this story with reviews. You guys rock.
Also, these next few chapters are really just kind of going to follow the movie. Apologies for the unoriginality, but we'll get back to our regularly scheduled plot deviation soon. Feel free to skip this chapter entirely because it's really kind of just a novelization.
10. Forbidden Friendship
"So, Gobber, I happened to notice that the book had nothing on Night Furies. I-is there something else I can read, like a sequel, or another book," Hiccup asked, "Maybe a little Night Fury pamphlet?"
He flashed that trademark Hiccup smile, and in response, a bright beam of fire blasted the blade of his axe off its shaft.
"Focus, Hiccup! Gods, you're not even trying!" Gobber scolded. Hiccup looked up and spotted the big, blue Deadly Nadder balancing on one of the maze's many walls. The dragon hissed and gave chase, hopping nimbly from wall to wall without breaking a sweat. He ran, weaving through the twists and turns and diving around a corner. Up above him, the dragon seemed to lose interest, bounding about in search of the other recruits. Hiccup dropped the axe's useless shaft. He didn't even know why he'd grabbed it and not his shortsword. Probably something to do with impressing Astrid. That had been bone-headed.
Gobber was stationed safely outside the ring, watching his creation play out from above with a smug grin, "Today is all about attack! Nadders are quick and light on their feet; your job is to be quicker and lighter!" He'd built an entire maze that morning before training, getting help from some of the few able hands left behind in the village. The work had been tedious, but the blacksmith hoped that it would be worth it.
Fishlegs scrambled around a corner, running a few feet before the Nadder pounced onto the apex of a wall to his left. With a threatening hiss, the Nadder raised its long tail and a ring of sharp spines extended from the skin, detaching with a swipe of the dragon's tail. Fishlegs screamed in terror, raising his shield and feeling the thump-thump-thump of a few of the spines burying themselves in the wooden block.
"Gobber, I'm really starting to question your teaching methods!" Fishlegs complained as he ran around another corner. The husky boy was practically on the verge of pissing himself with fear.
"Remember to look for its blind spot. Every dragon has one, so find it, hide in it, and strike!" Gobber instructed.
The twins were the ones to test out Gobber's instruction, running together around a corner only to nearly crash into the Nadder. Acting on dumb impulse, Tuffnut stood straight as an arrow, ushering Ruffnut behind him and moving with the Nadder's head movements. Amazingly, thanks to the Nadder's monocular vision, its blind spot happened to be right in front of its face.
This was not enough to satisfy Ruffnut, who had been saddled with the misfortune of smelling Tuffnut's long, greasy blonde hair.
"Ugh, do you ever bathe? You smell like Zippleback dung."
Tuffnut scoffed, "Those are pheromones, sis."
"What, to attract trolls?"
"You don't like it, why don't you get your own blind spot!" Tuffnut hissed, turning on his twin.
"How about I give you one?" Ruffnut snarled back, head-butting her male twin. Their helmets clanged together and the Nadder squawked, finally turning its head and figuring out the twins' position. The blue dragon opened its mouth and spewed a beam of white-hot fire. The twins lunged out of the way just in time and ran, managing to lose the Nadder in the series of twists and turns.
Gobber, who had seen the entire ordeal from above, chortled, "Blind spot, yes. Deaf spot, eh, not so much.
Hiccup ran past behind Fishlegs, glancing up and noticing Gobber. He skidded to a stop, infuriatingly intent on getting his questions answered. "Hey, Gobber, so, ah, how might one sneak up on a Night Fury?"
"No one's ever met one and lived to tell the tale," Gobber answered quickly. Irritation crossed his face, the boy was asking too many Thor-damned questions, "Now get in there!"
Hiccup backed away, verbally backpedaling, "I know, I know, but like, hypothetically—"
"Hiccup."
Hiccup whirled around, spotting Astrid and Snotlout crouched down by a corner in the maze. Astrid motioned for him to get down while Snotlout brought a finger to his lips. Hiccup did as he was asked, creeping towards them as Astrid peered around the corner. He heard the telltale squawk of the Nadder from around the corner.
Astrid's eyes never left the unseen dragon until she decided the time was right, and she acrobatically dove past the pathway, landing on her shield and expertly pushing herself up, completing the maneuver without so much as a sound. Snotlout followed, and then Hiccup. Surely, if those two could pull that off, so could he, right?
Hiccup dove, sticking his shield out to the ground so that he could push up and complete the rolling maneuver. Unfortunately, he didn't push hard enough on the way up… because of course he didn't.
He fell back pitifully, the shield in his grasp clattering on the stone floor. The Nadder heard him and turned, locking its golden eyes on him and sprinting. Panicked, Hiccup scrambled up and ran. The Nadder skidded around the corner, unable to stop itself on its too-big legs and crashing into a nearby wall. Undeterred, the dragon continued to chase him, crashing into wall after wall in a frantic pursuit.
The maze started to collapse around Hiccup as the Nadder clambered back to the top of the walls and bounded back and forth. Panic set in and Fishlegs came barreling around a corner past Hiccup, probably not even sure where he was going.
That was when he spotted Astrid leaping from wall to wall. How had she even gotten up there?
Just like with the axe, Hiccup quickly decided that it didn't matter… because she was now falling towards him. She'd run out of space to jump and had been forced to return to the ground, and Hiccup was perfectly in her way.
His body cracked as it hit the floor, pinned underneath Astrid. They both flailed awkwardly, each trying to get away from the other as the Deadly Nadder gained its bearings in the wreckage of the maze.
"Ooh, love on the battlefield!" Tuffnut jeered, safely tucked within a mess of splintered wood.
"She can do better." Ruffnut added.
Some bright idea crossed Tuffnut's face, and he added even further, "Actually, she can't!"
The twins both laughed cruelly and Astrid glared at them. A squawk came from the other end of the arena and she looked up, realizing with a jolt that the Nadder was sprinting straight for them. Panicked, she grabbed onto her axe and tugged, finding that it was buried in Hiccup's shield and refused to move.
Hiccup stammered as she tugged, "Hey—why don't you—let me—" until Astrid gave up on pulling the axe free. Her foot landed on his chest, suffocating him for all of two seconds and allowing Astrid to rip her axe and the shield from Hiccup. The Nadder reared up as it closed in, ready as ever to attack.
With a fluid stroke, Astrid smashed the shield into the Nadder's head, splintering the wood beyond repair. The Nadder squawked in pain and staggered away, jerking as stinging pain made its face go numb. The blue dragon limped away after that, its resolve crushed.
"Well done, Astrid." Gobber said from outside the ring, but his praise fell on deaf ears. She glanced down at her axe, ripping a stalk of wood from the blade, and turned on Hiccup.
But her glare softened as she looked down at him, seeing the awe on his face. Astrid rolled her eyes and resorted to grunting at him, "Get up."
Hiccup stood and she immediately punched him on the arm, "That's for getting in the way." Hiccup allowed the faintest of smiles to slip to his face, silently appreciating her surprising restraint. In another life, she might've yelled and screamed at him, using some real choice words or raising her weapon against him.
Gobber appeared at the arena gates, shouting and commanding the six recruits to fall in. "Arright, as you can see, not all dragons are slow like the Gronckle. The Deadly Nadder is among the most common dragons you'll find, but it's also fast and, as the name implies, extra deadly."
Gobber glanced at the mess that had been made of the arena, heaps and piles of dark, splintered wood. It had taken him all morning to set up the maze, and just like that his work had effectively been destroyed.
"That's enough for today. We'll all meet for dinner at the tower by the docks tonight. But first, you're all helping me clean this mess up. Come on, chop, chop."
Hiccup got away as soon as he could. The arena cleanup had sucked, but with seven pairs of hands it hadn't taken terribly long, and he had the entire day ahead of him. Having so few people left in the village allowed him to take loads of time off from the forge, which made it the perfect time to go see the Night Fury.
He found himself creeping into the cove, one arm carrying a shield and his opposite hand holding a fish by its gills. Two large rocks hid him from view, and he threw the fish tentatively away from him onto the ground. The fish landed with a wet smack and Hiccup stayed deathly still, peering over the lip of his shield.
He'd blown off training with Astrid to be here. He hadn't noticed her hurt expression before he dashed off under the pretense of heading home. Once there, he'd grabbed one of the shields off the wall and swiped a fish from the storage basket and hightailed it for the woods, reaching the cove in what felt like mere minutes.
Hiccup blinked, ceasing his staring into space and locking his eyes on the fish once again. Nothing was happening. Of course it wasn't. Stifling a groan, Hiccup inched forward, only for the shield to become caught in between the two rocks. He rolled his eyes and tried to tug it free, but it refused to budge and he ended up crawling under the suspended shield and out into the open. Hiccup reached down and grasped the fish again, sighing as he crept as carefully as he could, eyes searching for the too-familiar black shape.
A chill ran down his spine as he walked, and it took Hiccup a moment to connect the sensation with the feeling of being watched. Scared of what he might find, Hiccup slowly turned around, eyes fixing on a black dragon balancing on a boulder several feet behind him, green eyes trained curiously on him. The Night Fury crept down, inching closer yet keeping its distance as it eyed the fish.
Food.
"H-Hey there." Hiccup greeted tensely. He stared at the dragon, and the dragon stared at him. Hiccup nervously stuck out his arm to hold the fish a few inches closer to the Night Fury. It seemed to get the message and slowly inched closer.
The Night Fury opened its mouth, reaching closer for the fish, and then suddenly backed away, teeth bared and an angry snarl erupting from its throat.
Hiccup jumped back, spooked by the dragon's sudden anger. The knife at his hip suddenly seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. He gently pulled away the side of his fur vest, reaching for the small blade.
The Night Fury growled, scaring Hiccup's hand away from the knife. How had it known it was there? Hiccup reached again for the weapon, if he didn't get it off of him, the dragon would never come near him. A low growl rumbled from the dragon's throat as Hiccup gently placed his fingertips on the pommel of the knife and slid it from its place on his hip. Teeth clenched nervously, Hiccup dropped the knife on the ground.
The Night Fury jerked its head sideways, gesturing to the lake.
Oh, come on.
Hiccup lifted the knife with his boot, kicking out to the side and sending the knife hurtling into the lake. The water splashed and the blade sank to the bottom without fanfare.
What happened next was probably the last thing he expected. The Night Fury immediately sat up, narrowed eyes going wide with a curiosity that could only be described as… adorable?
Hiccup gulped and held the fish out again, heart racing. The jet-black dragon crept curiously toward the fish, its nostrils practically vibrating as it took in its scent. Carefully, it opened its mouth, revealing the smooth, pink insides of its mouth.
And no teeth.
"Huh, toothless?" Hiccup wondered aloud. That couldn't be right. He'd seen the dragon's menacing teeth just a second ago, right? "That's weird, I could've sworn that you had—"
Two full rows of teeth flashed into being from the dragon's gums, glinting a pristine white for all of a split second before the dragon snatched the fish and backed up, greedily grinding the food to bits and swallowing it effortlessly.
"Teeth." Hiccup finished. Strange. What purpose could retractable teeth serve? Perhaps the function helped protect the dragon's teeth over time? What was the lifespan of a Night Fury? Human teeth tended to decay in old age if they weren't taken care of. Was the same true of dragons?
Hiccup's mind continued to race as the Night Fury stared at him with narrowed eyes and crept closer.
Wait, that was actually happening.
The dragon warbled (warbled?) as it closed in on Hiccup, curiously sniffing. Hiccup scrambled back but the dragon continued to advance, eventually knocking Hiccup down and back until there was nowhere left to go, his back pressed against a boulder.
"Uh, no, no, no!" Hiccup stammered. The dragon's pupils smoothed and widened, "I'm sorry, I don't have any more!"
The Night Fury warbled again, and its throat repeatedly started to shake, beating like a heart. The dragon's green eyes nearly rolled back in its head and it opened its now-toothless mouth and regurgitated a half-eaten fish right into Hiccup's lap. Hiccup's stomach lurched and he felt a decent amount of saliva suddenly soak through his pants, leaving a sticky sensation on his legs. And the smell, oh, the smell. Yuck. It took everything Hiccup had not to vomit out of disgust right there.
The dragon leaned back and sat on its haunches, so obviously yet subtly pleased with itself. Hiccup made eye contact with the Night Fury, finding that it was staring him down with damning expectation. There was no ill will in its expression, instead its stare was blank and so… cryptic.
It glanced down at the fish and then back at him, making the slightest of gestures with its head. Oh, gods, the dragon couldn't possibly want him to eat the fish, could it? Gross.
But he wanted this dragon to trust him, right? And he wouldn't learn anything if the dragon didn't trust him when he was around. Maybe this was a test. Or maybe it was some sick way of getting back at him. Hiccup had taken its tail, after all. Did the dragon know it had been him?
Hiccup carefully lifted the fish towards his mouth, banking on the hope that this would earn the Night Fury's trust. He forced himself not to breathe in the smell of the regurgitated fish, holding his breath and closing his eyes as he took a bite. The fish was slimy with the dragon's saliva, and it crunched wetly as Hiccup bit into it.
"Mmph…" Hiccup grimaced, holding the chunk of fish there in his mouth. Surely this was enough. He looked back up at the dragon, "Mm-hmm!" he murmured.
The Night Fury licked its lips and gulped, throat bulging with the action.
Come on.
Well, he was really doing this. This was actually happening.
Hiccup grimaced, mentally preparing himself, and made to swallow, struggling for a second as the slimy fish caught in his throat. He gave it another go, and the food went down, leaving Hiccup with an unsettling, grimy feeling in his mouth and throat.
Weakly, Hiccup smiled, feigning satisfaction. The Night Fury seemed to accept, staring curiously at Hiccup's face before carefully sliding open its mouth, keeping its black lips slightly apart. Its mouth was toothless, and it occurred to Hiccup that the dragon was… smiling? Or at least as well as it could, being a dragon and all.
Maybe this was it. The dragon was imitating him. Surely that indicated trust, right? Determinedly, Hiccup set the fish aside, hoping that the dragon had forgotten about it, and reached his hand up and toward the Night Fury.
The dragon did not appreciate that. Its smile vanished and those white teeth slid out from its gums, a snarl curling out of the Night Fury's throat. The dragon whirled around and lifted off, flying clumsily away towards one of the snarled trees decorating the ancient wall of the cove.
Hiccup's shoulders sagged, but it only took him a few seconds to decide his next course of action.
He was nothing if not persistent. Anyone in the village would say that, along with many other choice descriptions. But this dragon, rumored to be evil and indiscriminate and demonic, had barfed up a fish for him to eat. It hadn't appreciated his attempt at contact, but there was progress. If everything he'd ever been told was to be believed, the Night Fury should've already torn him limb from limb and incinerated his body parts.
And back in the arena, so many weeks ago, that Deadly Nadder had approached him with all the curiosity of a child, without any aim of murder or bodily harm.
What if everything he'd ever been told about dragons was wrong? What if they were really just misunderstood creatures?
Well, one way or another, he was going to earn this dragon's trust.
The Night Fury landed with an awkward thump on the grass. Boulders and craggy rocks littered its immediate surroundings, providing a sort of natural camouflage. The beast padded on the ground, deeming it satisfactory and opening its mouth to breathe a stream of white-hot fire while walking in a circle. The grass caught fire and the Night Fury crumpled down, stamping out the fires with its weight but keeping the heat generated by them. Its scaly belly pulsed with welcome warmth and the Night Fury laid its head to rest.
The dragon could only close its eyes for a few moments before a bird trilled in the tree above it. Its ears perked up and it spotted the creature, a tiny little bluebird, take to the air and happily fly away. The Night Fury stifled a saddened croon. Lucky creature, able to fly off whenever it wanted. Oh, how the Night Fury missed the open sky.
The Night Fury saw a shape in its peripheral vision and looked over to spot the skinny human. It had followed, sitting down a handful of feet away. The human made some sort of gesture with its skinny arm. A greeting, perhaps? It also did that thing with its mouth again.
The Night Fury snorted with annoyance. He supposed it wasn't the worst that could happen, but that didn't mean it had to like what was happening. Sure, the boy wasn't trying to kill the Night Fury, but he was certainly being annoying. The dragon curled its tail in front of its head, stretching its tail fin to hide the small human's image from view.
Once again, this move only offered a few seconds of peace. The vibrations produced by the human's slight movements were impossible to miss, no matter how stealthy the skinny little thing thought it was being. The dragon instantly lifted its tail, catching the human red-handed in the act of trying to touch it. The boy immediately stood up and walked in the other direction, embarrassment rolling off of him in waves. The Night Fury audibly snorted and stood up. It would find somewhere else to sleep, somewhere that the human could not reach it.
The sun was setting. Hiccup had lost track of how many hours he'd been in this cove, but he also didn't care. He knew he needed to leave soon, though. He didn't want to be late for dinner with the others.
What a waste of a day. He'd gotten nothing from the dragon besides a grimy bite of fish and a few aggressive snarls.
With only a few more minutes to spare, Hiccup had taken to drawing in the dirt. He'd found an excellent stick that was long enough for him to simply sit back on the rounded rock beneath him and reach out to draw with practiced skill. At least he could use his time productively. He decided to draw the Night Fury. After all, he'd gotten plenty of looks at the jet-black dragon today. Its image was forever burned into his memory.
He had barely finished drawing the dragon's frame when the shadow cast itself over him and he felt the unusual warmth at his side. Hiccup glanced up, the Night Fury's form towering over him. What the…? What was it doing over here? The beast had been sleeping for a few hours now, hanging down from the branch of a tree like an enormous bat.
Hiccup stared emotionlessly at his drawing, glanced back to the dragon, and shrugged. He went to work on the details. Maybe the dragon was interested in what he was doing. Hiccup drew the dragon's oval-shaped eyes, making sure to add the slit-like pupils, and fashioned a few more quick details.
The dragon stared at the drawing curiously, perplexing Hiccup. Did it understand that the drawing was of itself? Then, as soon as it had showed up, the Night Fury stood up on its hind legs and stamped away. Hiccup grunted to himself and looked back to his drawing for a few seconds before the audible crack of a tree branch breaking off rattled his ears. Half-jumping, Hiccup looked back and the Night Fury bounded over to him, holding a huge branch between its jaws. It wobbled occasionally from the weight, apparently not yet having found the right balance between the wooden limb.
The Night Fury stumbled as it drove one end of the branch into the ground, drawing a line into the dirt. The beast kept going, drawing and drawing and stumbling so that it drew a cluster of squiggly lines that overlapped each other countless times. Once the Night Fury was apparently satisfied, it dropped the branch to the side and sat back on its hind legs, examining its work with an approving warble.
Hiccup looked around at the prison of aimlessly-drawn squiggles that now boxed him in. He stifled a laugh—crazy dragon—and started to walk away.
The dragon snarled at Hiccup and he jumped. Was it something he said? He looked down, noticing that his foot was on one of the lines the dragon had drawn into the dirt. He lifted his foot off the line and the dragon pacified.
Huh. Interesting.
Hiccup pressed his foot on the line again and the dragon snarled. Then he lifted his foot, and the dragon calmed. Down. Up. Down. Up.
And then past the line, into an empty space that had been formed by the crisscrossing lines. The dragon didn't react, merely watching curiously. So, that was the game. Understanding things now, Hiccup focused on the ground and stepped back and forth, feeling himself turn countless times over. He kept going, eyes flicking to the next open space and placing his foot there as he worked his way out of the dragon's little maze.
He realized that he was done when a warm breath of air breezed against the back of his neck. That telling shadow cast over him again. Hiccup turned, looking up at the Night Fury. It tilted its head in what must've been… approval? Hiccup's chest warmed and his mind gave him only one response.
Carefully, he reached back up for the Night Fury.
The dragon flinched, turning its head away and narrowing one of its eyes as the faintest hint of its white teeth showed themselves. Hiccup let his hand drop, but his resolve wasn't broken. He had to know. He'd spent all day in this cove. The dragon had given him part of its meal in a gesture of goodwill. It hadn't even remotely tried to harm him. The only thing it wouldn't do was allow itself to be touched. But he had to know if it would. He didn't even know what he was doing, beyond the fact that what he was trying to accomplish was likely treason of the highest order.
But he had to know.
So, Hiccup turned his head to the ground, shutting his eyes tight and blindly reaching his arm out in the dragon's direction. If the dragon trusted him, maybe this would work. He felt a breath of warm air on his fingertips, and then a pause as he reached his arm as far out as it would possibly go.
A pause.
And then warm scales.
A shiver like Hiccup had never felt before ran down his spine. He opened his eyes and looked so that he could be sure he wasn't insane, and found that he wasn't. The Night Fury had met him halfway, touching its snout to his hand.
As soon as it had started, it was over. The Night Fury opened its wide eyes and inched back. It shook its head and its eyes narrowed, and a snort that must've said something along the lines of 'that meant nothing' escaped its throat. The dragon ran off from there, its footfalls light and quick.
Hiccup stared at his hand in awe.
It meant something.
By Thor, it meant something.
"An' then, he took my hand, ripped it clean off, and swallowed it whole!" Gobber regaled, taking a moment to bite into the leg of chicken that had been mounted where his hand used to be, "An' I saw the look on his face: I was delicious! He must've passed the word because it wasn't a month before another one o' them took my leg!"
The other teens were amused, though Hiccup and Astrid were not. They'd both heard the story many times before, and Gobber usually embellished it a little more each time. Sure, dragons took one of his hands and one of his legs. Right about now, Hiccup was having difficulty believing that any dragon actually ate those limbs rather than ripped them off when they were fighting back.
They'd been up here for half an hour and the food was finally ready. Each member of the group had a cooked fish attached to a stick, while Gobber had taken the honor of swiping the only piece of chicken he'd brought up to the tower.
Fishlegs going on some weird tangent caught Hiccup and Astrid's attention. The husky boy rambled, "Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside of a dragon? A-and what if your mind were still in control of it? Maybe you could've killed that dragon from the inside, by like, crushing its heart or something."
Fishlegs quieted as he realized that everyone was staring at him in confused shock. Well, everyone except for Gobber, who was happily chewing on his chicken and hardly listening.
"I swear, I'm so angry right now." Snotlout snarled, his knuckles white as he gripped the stick with his food as hard as possible, "After I win training, I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight—with my face."
Gobber didn't seem too affected by Snotlout's outburst, slurping down another bite of chicken and contradicting the Jorgenson, "Mm, no, it's the wings and the tail that ya really want. If a dragon can't fly, it can't get away. A downed dragon is a dead dragon"
Those words echoed in Hiccup's head. The Night Fury in the cove was missing one of its tailfins, and as a result could not fly. If it stayed there, eventually someone would find it, and then it wouldn't be able to escape. He doubted that the dragon would have a tough time with one Viking, but with a horde of Vikings, each of them thirsty for the blood of the rarest dragon of all?
He had to do something to prevent that from ever happening. He couldn't allow the Night Fury to die. Not when it was opening up to him, when it was showing him things that he'd never thought possible.
He knew what he was going to do.
Astrid didn't notice the lack of warmth at her side for a few seconds. Hiccup had been sitting next to her, quiet as could be. It had been unnerving to her, but she hadn't dared to break the silence that fell upon them after a simple 'hey' that they'd shared in greeting when he'd arrived.
And then Hiccup had disappeared from her side, quiet as ever and leaving his food behind. Astrid's brow cocked and she stood up from her side, walking to the ramp leading down the tower as she heard the faint thump of Hiccup's feet carrying him down.
She only got a glimpse of his auburn hair before he was out of sight, and it perplexed her to no end. Why would he just take off?
"Astrid." Gobber said, beckoning her back to her seat.
It took everything Astrid had not to snarl when Gobber didn't wonder where Hiccup was. No one else did, either.
They cared that she was present, but not that he was.
Hiccup slipped into the forge as he had done countless times before. He lit a candle as he walked into his workshop, grabbing the first charcoal pen he could find and half-falling into the chair at his desk.
He ripped open his journal, flipping through page after page until he found his sketch of the Night Fury. One side of its tail was marred with a smudge, Hiccup's best job at erasing the tailfin that no longer existed.
With a quick yet careful hand, Hiccup drew the tailfin back into place, exhaling carefully as he examined the sketch. It wouldn't be easy to build a prosthetic tailfin, he'd need to find a usable material, probably leather. That was easy enough to get scraps of.
On top of that, though, he wasn't even sure how he would get it to work. Hiccup quickly decided that it didn't matter. He would cross that bridge when he came to it. What mattered right now was that he gave the Night Fury the basic means to fly once again.
Hiccup threw open a drawer and grabbed a long roll of blank parchment. It was time to draw up some schematics.